Wheelchairs are one of the most commonly utilized tools in the various care giving fields such as health care, nursing homes, and the like. Wheelchairs are useful as temporary and permanent aids to people with a variety of temporary and permanent conditions including injury, loss of use of limbs, fatigue, nausea, and the like. In many cases, wheelchairs are utilized for those with diminished leg function. Such users generally maneuver their own wheelchair with use of their arms or powered driving features.
One (1) of the most important functions of wheelchairs is obviously that of maintaining a user's legs and feet in a desirable position during use. Many times when a wheelchair is necessary it is due to some condition which affects a user's ability to move their legs or feet; as such, a supportive feature such as a footrest is critical for allowing the user to move about safely and comfortably. However, many such footrests are bulky, adding a non-trivial length to the front of the wheelchair which can make it difficult for a user to maneuver in tightly enclosed spaces such as bathrooms and hallways. In some cases, the added length may prevent a user from being able to turn around in such locations, which can lead to great frustration.
Various attempts have been made to provide wheelchair footrests. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,744, issued in the name of Rodaway, describes a hingedly deployable wheelchair foot rest assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,467, issued in the name of Zinn, describes a footrest unit for wheelchairs which allows a user to rotate each footrest portion outward to an out-of-the-way position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,509, issued in the name of Gay et al., describes a wheelchair footrest assembly which is rotatable up and down to provide a desired angle to a user's legs during use.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,050, issued in the name of Dickie et al., describes an adjustable footrest which allows a user to selectively adjust the angle and height of each foot's footrest individually.
Additionally, ornamental designs for a wheelchair footrest exist, particularly U.S. Pat. Nos. D 315,539, D 395,263 and D 530,651. However, none of these designs are similar to the present invention.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices pose a hindrance to a user's movement when in confined locations such as bathrooms or hallways. Also, many such devices do not provide a full range of desirable adjustability including height adjustability. Furthermore, many such devices which allow for compaction cease to provide their footrest functions when compacted and as such are only suited for maneuvering in close quarters for purposes of storage and the like. Accordingly, there exists a need for a footrest for wheelchairs without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.